The editorial “Tests of aptitude and attitude” (July 31), on CSAT, is one -sided. Quantitative aptitude is not the measure of qualitative skill. Why should some candidates be disadvantaged because they cannot solve some tricky questions? Why should they be forced to take an examination in a foreign language? If a north Indian District Collector can learn and speak Tamil when he is posted in south India, why can’t he learn English in the academy while training?
Sanjeev Kumar Patel,Varanasi
I started learning English at the age of 11 — that too in a rural Marathi medium school run by the district administration. When I first spoke in English in college, everyone laughed at me. I took it as a challenge and found that learning a language was the most simple and interesting thing in the world.
Even most of the urban elite convent educated students have no absolute command over English or their mother tongue. The 21st Century administrator needs a nationality with a global sense. For that, both English and the local language are a must.
Chaitanya M. Deshmane,Pune
The legitimate grievance that the Google translation of English in CSAT is extremely difficult is overshadowed by the illogical demand that the test be scrapped. How can an aptitude test be against any language?
Even the argument that it favours only engineering students doesn’t hold good if one looks at the bigger picture. General studies favour people from the humanities. So ultimately it balances out, and provides everyone a level-playing field.
Pragati Jajoo,Gwalior
